1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to technology for managing attributes.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growth of the Internet, the use of networks and other information technologies, Identity Systems have become more popular. In general, an Identity System provides for the creation, removal, editing and other managing of identity information stored in various types of data stores. The identity information pertains to users, groups, organizations and/or things.For each entry in the data store, a set of attributes are stored. For example, the attributes stored for a user may include name, address, employee number, telephone number, email address, user identity (ID) and password.
The Identity System can also manage access privileges that govern what an entity can view, create, modify or use in the Identity System. Often, this management of access privileges is based on one or more specific attributes, membership in a group and/or association with an organization. Some users of Identity Systems also use Access Systems. An Access System provides for the authentication and authorization of users attempting to access resources. For efficiency purposes, there is an advantage to integrating the Identity System and the Access System. For example, both systems can share the same set of data stores.
As markets expand and globalization increases, identity and access management increasingly faces the attendant requirements of such globally diverse environments. Particularly, management must address different language requirements of users accessing the systems. In some systems, the requirements are addressed through the installation of multiple server configurations to handle individual languages. A first server in an Identity Management System may be installed for a first language and a second server installed for a second language. Additionally, multiple data stores may be provided to store configuration and identity data in the different languages. These solutions are costly, present detailed and complex administrative management requirements, and are only scalable by the installation of additional servers.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide multi-language support for diverse environments while addressing the shortcomings of the prior art.